50 best press photos over the past 50 years

Pretty tough viewing....raises some pretty serious ethical questions concerning the role of the press journalist. Interesting how many didn't like to show or talk about their shots, like their job is evil but necessary.
 
It was interesting to see a grouping of winners from a European perspective. There were a few of the "usual suspects" in there from an American perspective but many more very important images that I'd never seen. Thank you for the link.

William
 
This makes for very difficult viewing (although most of the photos are so famous that repeated viewing robs them somewhat of their initial impact). There's a palpable tension between the will to take the all important photo and the devastating message it carries. Taking them must have been deeply traumatic: it's as if someone breathed to your ear a terrible secret that you now have to share with the rest of the world.

I don't know what I 'd have done but I am sure that taking any such photo would have swept away the pleasure of photography for the rest of my days.
 
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ywenz said:
Yeah, why are all the tragic photos getting all the props.. BS.. there's so much more to photojournalism than this...
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Except that at the end of the year, which ones do you, or anyone else, remember? The only "happy" prize winner I can think of still has a tragedy as it's cause - the pulitzer winner of the American POW returning home from Hanoi.

William
 
wlewisiii said:
Except that at the end of the year, which ones do you, or anyone else, remember? The only "happy" prize winner I can think of still has a tragedy as it's cause - the pulitzer winner of the American POW returning home from Hanoi.

William
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Incorrect.

First of all, forget whether or not the image was a "prize winner". My argument to begin with was that it's a sham that most images winning prizes show horrific events. So the fact that a horrific image won a prize doesn't really mean anything.

Second of all, I remember these "happy" images very much.

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ywenz said:
Yeah, why are all the tragic photos getting all the props.
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Because the awards are given out by a European press agency with a specific sociopolitical agenda.
 
That's odd, I recoginize all of the stories from American newspapers. Perhaps someone else has an agenda, too?

I think a more likely explanation is that tragedy makes a deep and universal emotional impression, whether in photography, drama, or music.

Also, most news is about war, crime, natural disasters, etc. It only follows that news photography would, too.
 
50 best press photos over the past 50 years Reply to Thread

50 best press photos over the past 50 years Reply to Thread

"My argumen to begin with," writes ywenz, "was that it's a sham that most images winning prizes show horrific events. So the fact that a horrific image won a prize doesn't really mean anything."
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I've got a nice picture of two girls eating ice cream cones in Central Park and another of a guy on a bicycle riding -- with a big smile on his face --with no hands on the handle bar...Do you think either of these will win as the No. 1 press photo of 2006 or any year you can mention? Of course, not...

By their very nature, news photos have to be truly outstanding to win the support of photo editors around the world. Like Fidel Castro in his sick bed, for example...Like the first President Bush out of sorts at a banquet in Japan...Like the resurrected photo in the last few days of JonBenet Ramsey in the unusual circumstances of her murder 10 years ago...

News is not always bad but bad news is almost always front-page news somewhere in the world and photos of calamities get good play...

Question: If you were a photo editor, which pix would you choose for today's paper? -- A yellow school bus with a bunch of smiling kids at the windows or a yellow school bus in ruins down a steep ravine...

You might want to run both pictures, but I --for one -- would think that would be too cruel...
 
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Bad news sells. That's it! "man goes to hospital, is treated, makes full recovery" is a non news story. "Man goes to hospital, catches MRSA, dies" is a news story. For every one of the latter, there are thousands of the former, but "we" aren't interested in them.

Mike Wells, 1980? Jesus Christ...
 
"A plane landing safely isn't news."

My dad used to say that. I don't remember if he was quoting someone, though. Its probably just an anonymous saying at this point.
 
"A plane landing safely isn't news," Kyle recalls his Dad saying.
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With all due respect, it's almost always true, but I can turn that on its head...What if a 16-year-old girl, with three pilot lessons in a Piper Cub, managed to land a Boeing 747 after the pilots were shot?

And of my earlier suggestion of a couple of smiling girls eating ice cream:
I can see that story on Page One in a major paper when the temperature hits 100 degrees for four days in a row...

So it all depends on the circumstances...Generally, nice pictures go into scrap books...Nasty ones, like Mel Gibson picking his nose, get the play...
 
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Well, I was speaking in generalities, of course.

In any event, I tend to agree with ywenz, or at least I'd like to. I'd like there to be more happier photos in this set. However, it doesn't surprise me in the least that these are the photos that won the contests. Thats simply the way the world is.

Also, wouldn't we be kidding ourselves in a way if happier photos were selected? When we have people dying in wars, famine, and genocide every single day, then photos of little girls eating an ice cream cone seem irrelevent.
 
bob cole said:
And of my earlier suggestion of a couple of smiling girls eating ice cream:
I can see that story on Page One in a major paper when the temperature hits 100 degrees for four days in a row...
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Yes, that makes sense, but in the end that photograph doesn't have much impact later on in the year.

I know this point has been made already, but if someone placed two photographs on a table, one of two girls eating ice cream, releated to the hypothetical story Bob described of a summer heat wave, and another of people in mourning after losing loved ones in a tragedy, what would be the reactions to each one?

The ice cream shot would probably get the reaction of, "Oh, I remember that, it got really hot that one week in August. My utilities bill skyrocketed that month." It might be a nice shot, but wheres the relevence?

The other photo would get a different reaction, "Oh, I remember that... people died."

I know my example is simplistic, but my point is... there are crappy things going on in the world and these things have more of an impact on our lives than most of the good things going on.
 
and another thing to keep in mind is that while the picture of the kids with the ice cream cone was nice, it didn't change anything... The pictures of Vietnam changed public perception and had a direct impact on US policy and getting out of the war. Did the end war in general? No of course not, but they did something at that moment in time.

While these photos all won for a single photo, we must also keep in mind that originaly most of them were part of photo essays which also had some sway in showing the meaning behind the one image.
 
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